The Latest Puzzle

The historical conundrum that is Gaza.

DINA KRAFT
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Tel Aviv

T

he sandy strip of land known as Gaza —
wedged between the flat, arid landscape
where Egypt, Israel and the Mediterranean
Sea meet — is something of an issue in Jewish histo-
ry.
Depending on how one interprets the Bible, Gaza
either was or was not included in the Land of Israel
conquered by the Israelites; Samson is the only
Israelite noted for having set foot there; and in the
Middle Ages, the false messiah Shabbatai Zevi gave
the area a bad name when he launched his move-
ment from its shores.
After a contentious debate, Israel's Knesset recently
voted to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip
and evacuate the 7,500 Jewish settlers who live in
suburban-style settlements there, where sprawling
green lawns and playgrounds are protected by wire
fences and military search towers.
The settler population is dwarfed by the 1.3 mil-
lion Palestinians who live in densely populated Gaza,
which is 25 miles long and just six miles wide.
The settlements often come under attack by rock-
ets and mortar fire. School busses are armored and
escorted by soldiers in an area where drive-by shoot-
ings and roadside bombings are facts of life.
But the Jews who have made the Gaza Strip their
home since settlement returned there following the
Six-Day War in 1967 remain defiant and hopeful
that the close-knit communities they have built will
be allowed to remain.
During biblical times, Gaza was part of the land
promised to the Jews but never part of the land actu-
ally conquered and inhabited by them, said Nili
Wazana, who lecturers on Bible studies and the his-
tory of the Jewish people at Hebrew University and
is writing a book on the borders of the biblical Land
of Israel.
She said there are contradictory references to Gaza
in the Bible. One passage, often cited by Jewish set-
tlers and their supporters is a passage in Judges which
says the tribe of Judah took control of the area. But
other stories in the Bible contradict this — typical of
the Bible, she said.
On almost everything, you will find an opinion
and an opposite opinion. It was not a homogenous
text, it was not written at one time, and there are
competing ideologies," Wazana said. The question
of Gaza is one of the issues where you will find dif-
ferent opinions."
Polls show that most Israelis are in favor of leaving
Gaza. They see neither historic nor strategic reasons
for staying. But to Yigal Kamietsky, the rabbi of the
Jewish settler bloc in Gaza known as Gush Katif,
Gaza is an integral part of biblical Israel.
"Gaza is part of Land of Israel, no less than Tel

mediterratven
Sea

Aviv and Bnei Brak," he said. "There is no doubt it
is part of the borders."
He said that not only was it considered a mitzvah
to settle there, but that "if we were not here, I am
not sure the State of Israel would still be there."
Rabbi Kamietsky was referring to the more than
4,000 rounds of mortar fire launched into Gaza's set-
tlements. He said Jews there act as a buffer for those
Jews living within Israel's pre-1967 borders.
Rabbi Kamietsky takes strength from history,
where Gaza was often caught in the crossfire of war.
"Always in history, Gaza seemed more problematic,"
he said, noting the fabled enemies of the Israelites,
the seafaring Philistines who controlled the area in
biblical times. The one period when Jews appeared to
have sovereignty over Gaza was during Hasmonean
rule when the Jewish King Yochanan — whose
brother was Judah the Maccabee — captured the
area in 145 C.E.

Historic Debate

Haggai Huberman, who has written extensively on
the history of Jewish settlement in Gaza over the cen-
turies, is writing a history of the Jews in Gush Katif.
He maintains that the Jews who lived there always
considered themselves residents of the Land of Israel.
He says that Jews lived on and off in Gaza since
the time of Roman rule, their settlement following a
pattern of expulsion during times of war and con-
quest and return during more peaceful periods.
The remains of an ancient synagogue found in
Gaza date to around 508 C.E. Its mosaic floor was
unearthed by archeologists and is now displayed in
the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
There was reportedly a large Jewish community in

the area when the Muslims invaded in the seventh
century. The Jews were noted for their skills as farm-
ers and for making wine in their vast vineyards.
After the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, some
Spanish and Portuguese Jews fled to Gaza. When
Napoleon's army marched through the area they
fled, but later returned in the early 1800s. When
the first wave of Zionist settlers arrived in the region
at the end of the 19th century, a group of 50 fami-
lies moved to Gaza City. According to Huberman,
they established good relations with local Arabs.
They stayed until they were expelled in 1914, along
with Gaza's entire Arab population, by the Ottoman
Turks during World War I.
In 1920, the Jews returned, but with Arab and
Jewish nationalism on the rise, tensions simmered
and the former good relations with local Arabs
began to sour, said Huberman.
The major Jewish presence in Gaza on the eve of
Israel's War of Independence in 1948 was a kibbutz
called Kfar Darom set up in 1946. It was evacuated
during the war and was among the first places to be
resettled by Jews after 1967 — first inhabited by
Israeli soldiers from the Nahal brigade before becom-
ing transformed into one of several civilian settle-
ments established in the 1970s as the settler move-
ment gained strength.
Any attempts to downplay Jewish roots in the
Gaza Strip "is part of the disinformation being
spread," said Eran Steinberg, spokesperson for the
Gush Katif settlements.
For her part, Wazana said present-day debates over
territory mirror those in the Bible. "Descriptions of
borders reflect different ideologies even back then,"
she said. "People have put words in the mouths of
God even in biblical times. If you have an ideology,
you will find the right words to support it."
Some who oppose Jewish settlement in Gaza point
to the fact that Orthodox Jews are allowed to con-
sume produce grown in the Gaza Strip during shmi-
ta, the seventh, or sabbatical year, when fruits and
vegetables are not to be cultivated in the Land of
Israel according to Jewish law.
But Rabbi Kamietsky said it is permitted to grow
produce in the Gaza Strip because even though it is
every bit "as holy" as the rest of the Land of Israel, it
was not an area settled during the Second Temple
period when Jews returned from exile in Babylon.
Today, support for Jewish settlement in Gaza is
dwindling, especially as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
— once the settlement movement's champion —
becomes its greatest threat.
"There is a lot of use of historical arguments," said
David Newman, a professor at Ben-Gurion
University who specializes in political geography and
writes about Israel's borders and settlements. "But
political decisions are based on real politics," he said.
"People on both sides give up historical aspirations
to reach a safer, more secure compromise."

